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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Buzz Takes Gmail To A New Level

Earlier today I was fooling around with Buzz. Even before that from just reading about it in the news, I never thought of Buzz as a Twitter or Facebook killer. My suspicions have now been confirmed. Buzz is a Gmail enhancer. Otherwise my Gmail experience was starting to get a little staid.

Google reinvented email with Gmail. I don't think it has reinvented social, updates and geo with Buzz. But it sure could not have afforded to be left behind. Social is not Facebook, updates are not Twitter, geo is geo. These are elements of the web experience, and they will seep through to everywhere or most places. The leading dot com could not have skipped the cacophony.

Two names popped up during my first experience: Adam Carson, and Vin Vacanti. I never connected with Adam on Facebook like I now do on Buzz. The guy got me on the Reader bandwagon long back, but once I got strong on Twitter, I shifted over to Twitter. My Twitter page is my newsfeed. I skim through the headlines in the morning on my Twitter page. Vin I got introduced to over email last year. I met him in person a few days back. And now I am part of conversations with his friends. And Buzz does not cut into my allowed Gmail space. That is important to me.

Right now my Buzz box is sexier than my Gmail Inbox, and only one click away. I am liking the experience.

One Buzz thread had the founder of Gmail and FriendFeed saying Buzz looks "familiar." How did Google find out I might be interested in that particular Buzz thread? They got it right. I don't know how they did it, but all I got to say is keep tweaking those algorithms.